SHS sweeps district titles by beating Murrah squad
SDN Staff Reports
BATESVILLE – Starkville Academy basketball coach Bruce Allsup was confident in his boys basketball team even after it lost two games at the District 2-AAA Tournament at Heritage Academy.
The Volunteers have responded this week with two wins at the North AAA Tournament and are now just one win from claiming the North AAA championship.
Starkville Academy avenged last week's 56-53 loss to Canton Academy in the division tournament with a 48-46 victory over the Panthers at North Delta Academy.
After jumping out to a 14-10 lead in the first quarter, the Vols extended the margin to 27-18 at halftime.
Canton Academy made a run at Starkville Academy in the second half, but this time the Vols held on for a two-point win.
Starkville Academy shot slightly better than the Panthers by hitting 18-of-42 shots from the field for 42 percent. Canton Academy shot 39 percent (16-of-41).
Noah Methvin led the Vols in scoring with 18 points, while Brady Richardson also scored in double figures with 11 points.
In improving its overall record to 19-8, Starkville Academy plays for the North AAA today at 5:15 p.m. against Golden Triangle rival Heritage Academy. The Lady Vols fell into an early hole and could not recover. After trailing 27-14 at the end of one quarter, Starkville Academy was outscored by Kirk 25-3 in the second quarter to go down 52-17 at halftime.
Kirk shot 48 percent (26-of-54) from the field, while the Lady Vols could only manage 25 percent (12-of-47).
Mary Peyton Passons had 10 points to lead Starkville Academy and was the only player to score in double digits. She just missed a doubledouble by pulling down nine rebounds.
Mari Laci Archer and Lillee Alpe were next in the scoring column for the Lady Vols with six points each.
Starkville Academy (20-14) now plays today against the loser of the Leake Academy-North Delta game at 1 p.m. in the third-place game.
JACKSON — Jalisa Outlaw had 15 points as the Starkville Lady Yellowjackets defeated the Murrah Lady Mustangs for the second time this season on Friday night 45-42 and this time captured the Class 6A, Region 3 championship.
After suffering their only district loss to Murrah 51-42 in Jackson during the regular season, the Lady Jackets defeated the Lady Mustangs 43-38 at home and then on Friday.
SHS girls coach Kristie Williams knew it wouldn't be easy to have success against Murrah on its home floor.
“That was a battle,” Williams said. “We know each other so well and play so good defensively so it came down to execution.”
Donsha Lee added 11 points for the Lady Jackets, who improved to 24-2 overall with their seventhstraight win.
Starkville will face the winner of Clinton-Southaven in the second round of Class 6A playoffs on Friday. It wasn't pretty but Starkville boys coach Greg Carter will take it.
Behind a strong first quarter and the play of Atavius Jones and Lance Trainer, the Yellowjackets got past Murrah to claim the Region 3 tournament championship.
“We didn't play as well as we normally do, but we fought our way through,” Carter said. “This was ac-
| Page 8